REALLY Vote with your remote....

I think that we should attempt to skew the way news is relayed to us, the information consuming public. The news networks keep saying that the reason they report what they report, when they report it is that they are in tune with what people want to watch.

Witness the latest news du jour.....the Libby/Rove indictments.

By every indicator I have, no one really knows or cares about this issue. I have not yet met anyone who can articulate the situation (outside of partisan "spin-based" sound bites) properly or accurately. I say this since not even the most unbiased of news organization can give "one" unified explaination of the issue (skewing either left or right).

Empty Meme = (adj.) An issue designed to carry the message of a partisan argument disguised as a relevant issue.

I don't know about you, but I find this insulting. Given the above, we can only conclude that this issue is what I would call an "Empty Meme". An issue designed to carry the message of a partisan argument. I mean, since when do we have the news networks telling us that someone "couple possibly be indicted in a few days?". No one seems to want to tell us about all the child molesters that "could possibly be indicted in the next few days!". In this case, the Dems use it to say that "The whole Iraqi war is a farce", the Repulicans use it to show case partisan spin and lack of control of the big picture. The networks seem to be the only people who care about this issue, and unfortunately that says a lot more about their partisan slants as news organizations than it does about their will to publish facutal reporting.

So I say that we really do "Vote with our Remotes". Every time you see an "Empty Meme" being reported on, like the Libby/Rove indictments, change the channel. While I do not think that the ratings are granular enough to see shifts in behavior based on news segments, the volatility between networks would be enough to make a case. If enough people did this, we could actually shape the way stories are reported to us. Imagine if news directors had to consider the "Empty Meme" dilemma and were forced to report facts based on thier own form of measurment.....ratings.

Remember! "If its an empty meme, change the screen!"